A Pilot Traumatic Coma Data Bank Project has been implemented with the objectives of developing common data collection methods and a uniform clinical vocabulary to insure inter-center comparability for the collection of accurate data for multicenter studies of severe head injuries. This is a demonstration project intended to provide guidelines and protocols for expansion to additional centers and other neurological disorders. The data collection in the pilot has focused on refinement of measures of outcome following head trauma, comparing primary brain injury characteristics (accident details, injury types and location) with outcome, and exploring the impact of secondary insults to the brain (shock, hypoxia, elevated intracranial pressure) on outcome.